Friend, 15 years in the restaurant business taught me a lot about restoring harmony and goodwill at a dinner table--a skill we might all find handy this Thanksgiving. If you're expecting skirmishes over turkey and stuffing today, here are a few tips from "the other side of the bar":
- Have extra stuffing whenever possible: A second serving does wonders to bring down rising tempers.
- Drink in moderation. One too many beers won't make you any more persuasive!
- Do some tactful redirection by reminding everyone how thankful we should be to live here in Colorado: 300 sunny days a year, mountain landscapes draped in snow, the birthplace of the cheeseburger (allegedly!)
- Keep asking everyone else how they are doing. Thanksgiving is a good time to find the little things you can do to help family and friends, often in ways wholly unexpected.
- What I also learned in the restaurant biz is the surest way to calm down someone who feels angry or unheard at the dinner table is to repeat their words back to them. All of us want to feel understood and acknowledged--something we need today more than ever.
The fact is, in our state, the opinions are all over the map. We are ranchers and farmers, teachers and restaurateurs, tradespeople and geeks. We have one of the highest percentages of political independents of any state; Colorado is every shade of blue and red, and some parts are as purple as the Rockies.
What holds us all together is this: Coloradans know how to listen. We know how to learn and evolve in pursuit of common goals. That's how we managed to get health insurance for 94% of Coloradans. It's how we stood up for our climate and our children by passing some of the strongest methane and gun safety regulations in the country. We did that.
However your Thanksgiving goes, I want you to keep this in mind: On the issues that affect us all, Colorado knows how to come together. And we will do it again in 2020 in order to push our democracy forward and give our state the representation it deserves in Washington.
Today, I'm grateful for my family, for every team who's ever supported me on every campaign and every elected office I've held, every restaurant I've started, and every project I've dived into headfirst. And friend, I'm grateful for you.
There's nothing we can't accomplish together.
Happy Thanksgiving,
John
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